Heard on The Judges: "over GEOGRAPHICAL LOC"

[Wilson Gray]

That's possibly why "over home" sounds somehow familiar, whereas Ray
Charles's "over town" and the cited speaker's "over north," involving
only location and not movement, strike me as something else.

-Wilson

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 3:02 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges: "over GEOGRAPHICAL LOC"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm just a-goin' over Jordan,
> I'm just a-goin' over home.
>   "Wayfaring Stranger" (a spiritual)
>
> The song, including these lines and specifically "over home", is
> attested at least as of 1858. See
> http://supersearch.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=23495#624401  :
>
>>>>BEGIN QUOTE>>>
>
> Subject: Lyr Add: GOING OVER JORDAN (WAYFARING STRANGER)
> From: Burke
> Date: 09 Jan 02 - 06:52 PM
>
> GOING OVER JORDAN (Wayfaring Stranger)
> 8s & 9s
>
> 1. I am a pilgrim and a stranger,
> While wandering through this world of woe;
> But there's no sickness, death, nor sorrow,
> In that bright world to which I go.
>
> CHORUS:
> I'm going there to see my father,
> I'm going there to see my Lord;
> I'm just a going over Jordan,
> I'm just a going over home.
>
> ...
>
> From: Beaver, John., The Christian Songster, Dayton, Ohio: Printing
> establishment of the United Brethren in Christ, 1858. Text only, no.
> 23, p. 34. Reproduced in: Garst, John F., "Poor Wayfaring
> Stranger--Early Publications." The Hymn, v. 31, no.2 (1980): p.97-101.
> @religion @hymn @spiritual
>
> <<< END QUOTE<<<
>
> On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 1:14 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> These uses of "up home, down home" are new to me. But "over home"
>> seems fine, though not necessarily with so specific a meaning, of
>> course. ;-)
>>
>> -Wilson
>
> Mark Mandel
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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